The Kids Aren't Alright
by snickermoon814
Summary: Rival. Equal. Friend. It was sort of fierce love and devotion that had grown within Naruto for the first one to acknowledge him, and for a time he thought that those feelings were mutual. Then he was crushed and cast aside, tossed into the dirt like trash. But no matter what abuse was hurled at him, he knew one thing: that they would always be best friends.


**This is based off of the song "The Kids Aren't Alright" by Fall Out Boy.**

 **I own nothing.**

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 _Stuck in the jet wash_

 _Bad trip I couldn't get off_

 _And maybe I bit off more than I could chew_

 _And overhead in the aqua blue_

As a child, Naruto had cherished two goals: to become Hokage one day, and to make a friend. The former wish would have to wait, but he thought that the second could have come into fruition the day he saw Sasuke Uchiha sitting by that lake. But his nerve had failed him, and he retreated. As time went on, he saw that he had been foolish in that hope anyway—Sasuke was so different than him, so strong and talented and smart, that they never could have been friends.

No, rivals were all they could be.

Then they were placed in the same team, and Naruto saw more to the dark-haired boy than he had thought could ever be there. Not only did Sasuke not regard him with fear or disgust, he even openly admitted their rivalry with _anticipation_.

Sasuke was like the moon on a dark night, lighting up Naruto's dark and lonely world. "Rival" was too trivial a word to describe what Sasuke was to him—as time passed, he became a brother, a friend, a _best_ friend.

And then Sasuke left.

Naruto had underestimated the darkness in Sasuke, but he couldn't be _gone_ —no, there had to be a way. He would bring his friend back.

He failed.

Heroic notions had flashed through his head while on the chase—maybe _he_ could be the savior, maybe he could be the sun that brought back the moon—but instead, he had been defeated and left alone in the rain.

They'd had fun, he and Sasuke, but that fun was done now, and it was time for the reality of their lives to kick in.

Of all the people to become so important to him, why did it have to be the broken boy hell-bent on revenge?

Maybe he'd bitten off more than he could chew.

The logical part of Naruto told him that this would be far too difficult to handle and that he needed to let go _now_ before he became trapped, but he'd grown very good at ignoring that part of him. After all, even if he did get away, where would he go? What would he do? Sasuke was a part of him now. He could never be removed.

 _And with the black banners raised_

 _As the crooked smiles fade_

 _Former heroes who quit too late_

 _That just wanna fill up the trophy case again_

It took years to accept the fact that Sasuke couldn't be brought back with just words. Oh, he tried. He tried over and over again. He trained to become stronger, dealt with horrible people, went through terrible transformations, all for the sake of his friend. It couldn't be that he would go through all of that just to be rejected once more, could it?

It was only when he felt the cold steel of Sasuke's blade against his skin did he realize that it could.

Sasuke had raised the black banners of darkness and depravity rather than the white ones of surrender and peace.

After that, Naruto started to forget.

He started to forget Sasuke's crooked smile, his dry humor and short laugh. He started to forget the parts of Sasuke that had been his friend, the parts that had made him someone worth being around, worth fighting for and protecting. All Naruto could see now was the burning black hate in Sasuke's eyes and the twisted sneer of rage on his face.

But in all that, he still remembered one thing with stark clarity: Sasuke had been his best friend, and always would be. So, no matter what, Naruto would do everything in his power to make it so that he'd remember that smile again.

Even if it brought him lower than the dust, even if it made him nothing but an annoyance to others, he would never stop. The only time he would ever quit would be in death, and even then he would struggle and fight and _haunt_ Sasuke as a ghost if need be.

Because without his brother, there was a hole in Naruto's chest, a dusty shelf that would never be filled. And he _needed_ to fill it.

 _And in the end,_

 _I'd do it all again._

 _I think you're my best friend_

 _Don't you know that the kids aren't all, kids aren't alright?_

Why couldn't people see Sasuke the way he could? The way Sakura and Kakashi could? Not as an insane rogue, but as sick and lost comrade who needed to be shown the light. Everywhere he went, all people would do was curse his name and wish death upon him, calling him _traitor._

So what if he was? Naruto didn't care. Even traitors needed help, and they had no right to talk down upon him and say such things, even in his absence.

Naruto couldn't stand for that, so he took the abuse. He took the beatings, the rage and hate and fear that was directed at Sasuke and compressed it into a small, angry ball that he locked away in a secret chest in his heart so that no one would ever have to see it again.

He even committed one of the greatest acts of stupidity that he had ever done (and coming from him, that's saying something) and begged the Raikage to pardon Sasuke for his crimes. He may have been beaten to a pulp for it, but it didn't matter. After all, Sasuke was his best friend, and Naruto would take every bit of hate in the world over and over again if it meant helping him.

Even if he wasn't quite alright afterwards.

 _And your love is anemic._

 _And I can't believe that you couldn't see it coming for me._

One thing that made Naruto truly sad, though, was the fact that Saskue _knew_ what he was doing, _knew_ that he was destroying lives and the world and simply didn't care anymore.

Sasuke had had all the knowledge he needed in the palm of his hand, knew every truth that he could want to know, and had still chosen the path of corruption and destruction. And yet, he also thought of it being necessary for the world, that the world was choked and defiled and needed to be destroyed in order to be saved. It was love, in a twisted and warped sense. Love for the world that he knew as a child, before the mutiny of his clan and the horror and fear of the bloodbath that came as a result. The only way Sasuke could regain that world was to tear down this rotten one.

But it was still love. And love could change.

Sasuke's love was sick, and Naruto needed to nurse it back to health.

Only, it was getting a lot harder to do that as time went on.

 _And I still feel that rush in my veins_

 _It twists my head just a bit to think_

 _All those people in those old photographs I've seen are dead._

Often times, the whole idea of chasing down Sasuke and bringing him back home seemed to be futile, and Naruto would feel like collapsing on the floor and never getting back up. But then he would remember that feeling he had when they were together, that bubbling happiness, that _high_ that friendship gave him. It would conjure the image of the photo of Team Seven that he always carried around with him, and he would think about it, and get lost in those memories.

But memories were all they were. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and even Kakashi to some degree had become such drastically different people that Naruto could barely even recognize them anymore as the same people in that picture.

He kept it anyway, to remind him of what they once were, and maybe one day could be again.

 _I'll be yours_

 _When it rains it pours._

 _Stay thirsty like before_

 _And don't you know that the kids aren't all, kids aren't alright?_

Naruto understood what Sasuke wanted and why he wanted it. He also understood that the only way his friend would ever admit defeat and come home was if they fought.

He didn't want to.

It wasn't fair that after everything he, _they_ had gone through, it would all come to an end in an epic battle to the death. This sense of unfairness only increased when Naruto learned about Asura and Indra's feud and that whole reincarnation crap. He didn't care about a fight that had taken place hundreds of years ago—he only wanted to bring Sasuke home.

But he still understood. And so he resigned himself to the inevitable, and prepared for the fight that he knew would come. He only hoped that Sasuke would give it his all, or Naruto would never accept it.

But he would never be alright, and neither would Sasuke, or Sakura, or anyone else, really. The whole damn war had seen to that. Everything had gone from bumpy but manageable to an out-of-control chaotic spiral of doom, and everyone had gotten caught up in it. He could feel it in the wild emotions running rampant throughout the battlefield, and it was affecting him and he was starting to panic. His throat felt tight and if they managed to survive this Sasuke had just come back he didn't want to fight him he didn't want to fight him _he didn't want to lose anyone else he didn't—_

No, they definitely weren't alright.

It didn't matter.

If it was the only way, then it was the only way.

Because Sasuke was his best friend.

 _And in the end,_

Lying in the rubble left by their tumultuous final battle, Naruto felt the blood draining out of the stump that remained of his right arm.

He didn't care.

Sasuke was talking to him. Talking to him without threatening him, the village, or anyone at all. Talking like he used to, when they were younger and happier.

"You never thought of cutting ties with me, no matter what happened…why do you care so much about me?"

 _I'd do it all again._

"Don't you already know?"

 _I think you're my best friend_

"It's because you're my friend."

And as Naruto explained what that meant, they both realized that they were more than a little messed up, and definitely not alright.

 _Don't you know that the kids aren't all, kids aren't alright?_

But as they felt the rush of friendship surge through their veins once more and saw the holes and empty shelves in their hearts filled, they thought that maybe, in time, they would be.

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